Heather M.
Yelp
From valet to the final bill, the service and food were terrible.
My daughter made reservations for Thanksgiving dinner at Morton's so that we could enjoy a relaxing night at a great restaurant. When we arrived for our 7:15pm reservation, the hostess said there was a 25 minute wait beyond the reservation, that customers were taking longer than expected, enjoying their meals, and we could wait in the bar. We saw the bar and small entry were full, so decided to take a walk outside and return after 25 minutes. When we returned, the valet was on his phone and so I opened the door myself. While waiting another 20 minutes in the crowded entry, we saw a woman quietly talk to the hostess about an issue she experienced.
When the hostess led us to the table, she found it had not yet been cleared, so she led us back to the crowded waiting area, cleared the table herself, and then sat us. The hostess appeared to be working very hard, was very professional, and lacked support.
My daughter was seated in a walk-way, and customers and staff bumped into the back of her chair throughout our stay, no apologies. The tables were packed too tight, quite different from a few years ago.
Our waiter arrived, provided menus, let us know the kitchen was running behind, and left us to review the menu. When he returned we placed our order, and declined the offered bread to save room for our meal and dessert. We ordered the half dozen oysters, lobster ravioli entree, 8 oz filet mignon medium rare, & sides of brussels sprouts and corn soufflé.
Not long after, we were served the mineral water we ordered, and brought the onion loaf we had declined. Sometime later our waters were filled. We waited for over an hour for our food.
While we waited, I overhead a nearby customer quietly say to the waitress, "I'm not angry..." I couldn't hear more, but it was not a good sign to see a second customer have an issue. We also overheard waiters say many of the desserts were sold out. We also noticed many if not most customers did not meet the dress code of business casual, wearing sweats and loungewear.
First the oysters on the half shell came out, and they were presented well, except no small fork was provided, so we used our salad forks to lift the oysters out of their shell. The oysters were very delicious. Next our waiter brought the lobster ravioli, which was swimming in a heavy cream sauce, making it impossible to taste the lobster. The quality of the ravioli reminded me of what I could get at Costco. Next came the steak on a large oval plate covered in juices. In other words, it was not plated properly. The steak was not seared on the outside at all. It was pink inside as requested, but the flavor and texture were ruined. A few years ago I had ordered the same steak at this restaurant and it was incredible - beautiful and delicious. This was very sad. We each tried the steak, but it was too unpleasant to eat. Then came the brussels sprouts and corn "soufflé." The brussels were also not seared, and were mushy with poor color. The corn "soufflé" resembled thawed frozen corn mixed with an unidentifiable substance and not in any way like a souffle. The food felt very institutional, like the worst hospital food.
We let the waiter know the steak and sides were not edible. He cleared these items, returned and asked if there was anything else he could bring. I asked if the kitchen was still running an hour behind and he confirmed yes. This didn't make sense as many of the tables were now empty. Also, I was hesitant to request new food when so far everything had been terrible. We decided to ask for a Caesar salad, thinking that was hard to get wrong and should be fast. Before long the waiter brought a large, sad looking Caesar salad. It was also very unappetizing, with bruised, limp leaves. We took a few bites and stopped eating. We also didn't finish the ravioli.
As we sat, wondering how Morton's had declined like this, a man come by and introduced himself as the manager, and asked how our evening was going. I asked if he'd talked to our waiter and he said no, that he was just checking on customers. (We didn't see him talk to any other customers.) We let him know about the food we had sent back. He apologized, didn't ask about the uneaten salad and remaining ravioli, and left.
At this point we wanted to go home. We waited a very long time for our bill. Finally the manager returned, said they weren't charging us for the food we sent back (although they added the terrible uneaten salad), and he acted like he was doing us a favor. He also didn't mention being part of Landry's, and I forgot to put my Landry's card with my credit card. We paid and left, stunned. We went home, ate some crackers and went to bed. So shockingly disappointing. What happened?